THE WEEK; Pupils in Chappaqua Cope With Slaying

By ERIN DUGGAN

Published: November 26, 2006

Peggy Perez-Olivo, 55, a teaching assistant, began Friday, Nov. 17, at Douglas G. Grafflin Elementary School in Chappaqua by reading to students from the children's book ''The Secret of Saying Thanks.''

It was the beginning of the school day, and Mrs. Perez-Olivo was the mystery reader, a staff member who uses the word of the month -- for November it was ''gratitude'' -- and reads to the 540 students over the school's intercom.

On Monday, students were informed by their teachers that Mrs. Perez-Olivo had been badly hurt, and by Tuesday they knew she had died.

Mrs. Perez-Olivo and her husband, Carlos, 58, were shot last Saturday and she died of her wounds on Monday. Mr. Perez-Olivo told the police that the couple's car was forced off the road in New Castle and a man then shot them.

Michael G. Kirsch, the principal, said Mrs. Perez-Olivo was the first teacher or teaching assistant to die while employed at Grafflin since he began his tenure there 32 years ago.

Mr. Kirsch and the school's crisis team worked last week to help students deal with the loss and scripted a paragraph for teachers to read to their classes.

''We wanted to be sure that all teachers were giving out the same message,'' Mr. Kirsch said. He said students seemed to be handling the incident and some have talked to their teachers and the school nurse about their feelings.

Amy Krafft of Chappaqua, whose 6-year-old son, John, is in the first-grade class in which Mrs. Perez-Olivo worked, said he understood what happened.

''She died,'' John said from inside the grocery cart his mother was pushing through a Chappaqua parking lot.

''I told him she went to heaven, and he said he was going to miss her very much,'' she said. ERIN DUGGAN

Photo: PROVIDING ANSWERS -- Michael G. Kirsch, the principal at Grafflin Elementary in Chappaqua, is helping pupils understand a death on the faculty. (Photo by Alan Zale for The New York Times)